


Abominable

by ExistentialBunnyRabbit



Category: Original Work
Genre: Abduction, Angst, Blood and Gore, Brutality, Crimes & Criminals, Dark, Dead Dove: Do Not Eat, Death, Drug Use, Explicit Sexual Content, F/M, Gore, Gun Violence, Horror, Non-Consensual Drug Use, Pain, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Psychological Trauma, Rape/Non-con Elements, Recreational Drug Use, Survival Horror
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-09
Updated: 2020-10-09
Packaged: 2021-03-08 00:20:02
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,453
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26906506
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ExistentialBunnyRabbit/pseuds/ExistentialBunnyRabbit
Summary: Madeline Conner is just trying to get by. Working two crappy jobs and living in the crappiest apartment ever, she always finds herself thinking that life can't get any worse.She soon finds out just how screwed up life can really be.
Relationships: Original Female Character/Original Male Character
Kudos: 8





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this story years ago...maybe as many as fifteen? Hell, I don't remember. I had it written down on an old computer and after it broke down I hadn't thought about it again. I just randomly remembered this and was shocked to find that I can pretty much recall most of it. Figured why the hell not try to rewrite it? Maybe someone will read it...although you really probably shouldn't.
> 
> Anyway, this will be extremely, EXTREMELY, dark and graphic...like a literal fucking nightmare. It's probably the worst thing I've ever written to be perfectly honest. Enjoy!

Madeline Conner sat behind the wheel of her aging Civic with her eyes closed and her head down, wishing for maybe the thousandth time that day that she wasn't so tired. It was the kind of exhaustion that went bone-deep, a sort of slow withering of the spirit, something that all the caffeine in the world couldn't help. Working two jobs and still barely making rent even with a roommate, she couldn't afford a diet that consisted of anything more than Ramen noodles and chicken nuggets. She couldn't even buy a bottle of multivitamins to help supplement the nutritional needs she was missing out on.

She was just so tired of work, tired of people, tired of life; tired of _everything_. She often fantasized that she was someone else, anywhere else, and living a completely different life than the one she had now. It didn't have to be anything fancy, she'd never wanted to be a movie star or a model...she was far too shy and reserved for that. She could be something as ordinary as a housewife or a teacher or, shit, even a professional dog walker. Anything other than a thirty year old woman with no family, no close friends and no prospects for a better life in the future. 

Anything had to be better than this, didn't it?

_Didn't it?_

Sighing, she reached over to turn off the car's engine and sat there with her eyes closed as rain drummed on the roof loud enough to make her think of long ago nights in the trailer with her stepfather and how it sounded a lot like this sometimes when he would come home drunk and -

Maddie gave a sudden, forceful shake of her head. No. She wasn't going to think about that. That was a long, long time ago. A lifetime ago. She was just a little girl then. Now she was grown. She never had to endure her stepfather's presence or hear his heavy tread as he walked down the length of their double wide to her room. She never had to be afraid like that ever again. Maybe life sucked but it was a whole hell of a lot better than it had been twenty years ago.

Sometimes she forgot that things could be a lot worse, too.

Maddie got out of the car and held up her battered old backpack (which held her change of clothes and her phone charger) over her head, hoping to avoid being drenched in the downpour. It didn't rain often in this part of Texas but when it did it usually resembled something out of an old Cecil B. Demille biblical flick. She ran for the door of 'Tommy's Homemade Subs' and actually managed to make it inside before she was completely soaked.

"Hey, girl!" came a familiar voice.

She lowered her backpack, her lips already stretching into a smile, and turned her head to see Veronica, her favorite co-worker ever. She came rushing forward to give Maddie a hug and said, "Oh, shit, am I glad to see you! I am so sick of working with that sour old woman. Patricia's the absolute _worst_."

"I'm glad to see you, too," Maddie returned, releasing her and shrugging her backpack up onto one shoulder. "Working with Fernando hasn't been a picnic for me, either. I guess you finally got someone to watch your kids for a night, huh?"

Veronica was happy to tell her about how her sister had come down from Lubbock to live closer to their parents and how she was more than happy to babysit Jaxon and McKenzie while she picked up a few extra evening shifts. She then went on to tell her about how school was going and how the court case against her ex-husband for child support was going. Veronica was a chatterbox and since they hadn't seen each other for almost two weeks, there was a lot to catch up on.

Maddie commented occasionally and answered questions when asked but for the most part she was happy just to listen. She wasn't extremely talkative by nature and their lives were so different that at times they had difficulty understanding one another's problems but they got along really well for people that never saw each other outside of work. Despite the ten year age difference between them, Maddie genuinely enjoyed Veronica's company and the way her stories filled up all the empty hours when there was nothing to do.

~•~•~•~

The rain didn't let up for almost her entire shift and they didn't have more than a handful of customers all night. By the time the rain did finally stop, there were only thirty minutes left until closing time and Maddie was in the back slicing vegetables while Veronica cleaned the lobby. Maddie was humming, lost in her own little fantasy of owning a bakery with the best goddamned scones on planet Earth, as she got through the last bell pepper. She lay the slices in the tub along with all of its fallen brothers and set it aside to cover with plastic wrap once she finished everything else up. She was just reaching for the first red onion when she heard the bell chime in the lobby, signaling that a customer had come in through the front door.

She wiped her hands on a towel and was preparing to head for the front of the store when there was a loud boom. She had time to think, _Gunshot? Was that a fucking gunshot?_ Then she heard Veronica cry out in fear and her heart was suddenly in her throat, beating so hard and fast that it almost hurt.

Veronica voiced another cry of fear and this time Maddie thought she heard pain in it as well. That got her moving and she went to the little two way mirror that gave a view of the lobby. What she saw there caused her to give her own cry of terror but she quickly smothered it with one hand before it could become a scream.

Three men dressed all in black, even with black ski masks over their faces, stood there holding guns. One of them, the shortest of the three, had Veronica by her elbow and was pointing a large caliber revolver right at her head. Veronica's mossy-green eyes were wide and huge, her already naturally pale face at least two shades whiter and causing the smattering of freckles on her normally rosey cheeks to stand out like black dots on a sheet of paper.

"You're gonna take us to the register," barked the man in the middle who was holding an automatic weapon on her. "And you're gonna give us every goddamned dime outta that thing if you want to live to see tomorrow. Understand?"

Veronica was nodding frantically, her gingery curls bouncing under her cap. "Y-yes!" she wailed, tears streaming from her eyes. "I'll do it! I - I swear I will! Just don't shoot me!"

All three of them laughed and that was when Maddie began fumbling for her phone. She pulled it out of her back pocket and quickly dialed 911 as she watched the men walk Veronica over to the counter. It rang a couple of times and she danced anxiously from foot to foot before there was a man's voice was in her ear, sounding almost as weary as Maddie had felt earlier.

"911, what's your emergency?"

Maddie cupped the phone to her mouth with one hand and spoke in a low, shaking voice that hardly sounded like her own, "There's three men with guns robbing us. They - they've got my friend. I think they might hurt her."

There came the clacking of computer keys on the other end of the line and Maddie watched as Veronica struggled to hit the right button to open the register with three guns pointed at her.

The man sounded bright and alert now; back to business as usual. "What is your location?"

"Tommy's Homemade Subs on Sycamore," Maddie replied, watching as Veronica stuffed bills into a sack with one shaking hand. "I - I can't remember the address."

"It's okay," the operator said, his voice calm; trying to soothe her. "We can find you. What's your name, honey?"

Normally being called 'honey' by a man was something that irritated her but this time she didn't even notice it. "M-Maddie," she said, feeling wetness on her cheeks and totally unsurprised to find that she was crying, too. "Madeline Conner."

"Alright, listen, Maddie," the operator said while keys continued to clack rapidly in the background. "I've dispatched officers to your location and they'll be there soon. Where are you right now?"

She watched one of the gunmen, the largest of the three, set his automatic shotgun on the counter and dig one gloved hand into the roast beef. He pulled out a huge, dangling mass and lifted the bottom portion of his mask to stuff it into his mouth, smiling and chewing while Veronica finished emptying the register.

"I'm in the back by the coolers," she said, still speaking barely above a whisper as she watched through the two way mirror. "They can't see me. I don't think they know I'm here."

"Is there a way you can get out without them knowing? A back door? A window?"

Maddie turned to look at the emergency exit next to the walk in freezer. "No," she said, turning back to face the front again. "The alarm will sound."

"Is there anywhere you can hide? A closet? A bathroom?"

Maddie opened her mouth to tell him no when she heard the man with the automatic rifle say, "I heard something in the back." He turned to the tallest man, the one still chewing roast beef, "Go check it out."

"Oh _shit_ ," Maddie heard herself say, her fear suddenly swelling up until she could barely breathe. She watched the man pick up his shotgun and pull his mask back down, already moving toward the partition separating the lobby and the prep area. "H-he's coming back here. He's gonna find me!"

"Hide," the 911 operator told her, his voice rough and brooking no argument. "Hide _now_ , Maddie."

She heard the footsteps of the roast beef eater coming around the side and immediately dropped to her knees, slipping under the counter and pushing herself as far back against the wall as possible. She still held her phone to one ear and she could hear the operator telling her to be quiet, to not make a sound, but at the same time she didn't hear him at all. Everything was blocked out by the sight of black-clad legs wearing big leather work boots coming through the doorway and approaching her. She let out a tiny whimper and covered her mouth with one hand, holding her fear in as best she could.

"Quiet, Maddie," the operator whispered, sounding a little scared himself. "Just stay quiet, honey. Help is on the way."

She watched the gunman go from one side of the room to the other, his boots smacking the tile floor beneath them loud enough to mask her shallow, fast breathing. He went to the cooler, pulled it open and looked inside. Seeing nothing other than baskets of veggies, cheese and cold cuts, he quickly shut it again before heading for the freezer. He checked that one out as well and saw only cases of frozen bread and more meat.

The 911 operator had fallen silent, perhaps fearing that his voice would be heard, and Maddie watched as the gunman shut the freezer door again. He turned around, the tips of his boots facing her, and called out in an impossibly deep voice, "Alright, who's back here?" He tapped one heel on the floor a moment and then, in a childish, sing-song tone, "Come out, come out, wherever you are!"

Maddie tightened her hand around her mouth even tighter, the tears coming faster and faster, and heard the man laugh to himself. He began to walk forward, directly toward her, and stopped just in front of her. She waited, tasting the bitter sludge of fear on the back of her tongue, and then he suddenly bent at the waist to look under the counter; his dark brown eyes only inches from hers.

"Boo!" he laughed. "Found you!"

Maddie let go of her mouth and screamed, dropping her phone as the 911 operator howled with her, and then one of his big hands was grabbing her wrist and dragging her out. She continued to scream as he pulled her up onto her feet, laughing like crazy, and then the end of his shotgun was pointed at her face.

"Shut the fuck up!" he growled at her, still smiling. "Or I'll blow your fucking head off!"

Maddie choked off her cries of terror and looked down the bore of his shotgun, so big and dark that it seemed to be the size of a tunnel. He was crushing her wrist in his gloved hand, grinding the little bones painfully together, but she hardly felt it. Her world had been swallowed up by the barrel of his shotgun and she knew any moment there would be a bang. A bang and then goodbye, cruel world. It was nice knowing ya, Maddie.

"Please," she whispered. "D-don't."

The gunman chuckled again and said, "Be good and you don't have to worry about it. Come on."

Then he was dragging her back to the lobby, never loosening his tight grip on her even though she didn't try to fight. He brought her out to the others and when Veronica's eyes met hers, she began to speak so rapidly that Maddie could barely understand her.

"You got what you wanted," she said, looking back and forth between the two gunmen flanking her. "You can leave now, okay? J-just go! Please, just leave us and go! We don't have anything else!"

The man holding the automatic weapon snarled, "Shut up, bitch!" and whacked the back of Veronica's head with the butt of his gun.

She went down like a sack of potatoes, blood trickling out from beneath her curls, and Maddie screamed in horror. Suddenly the shotgun was back in her face and the tall one warned, "Be quiet or you'll get the same." Then he turned to the others, gesturing at Maddie with his gun. "Whaddaya think? This one?"

The other two seemed to look at her for a long moment and Maddie's brain was a whirl of confusion. _This one what? Oh God, this one_ what _? What the fuck does that mean?_

"I don't know," the man holding the revolver said, munching on his own handful of meat now. "She's kinda skinny."

The man holding the automatic weapon met her blue eyes with his own hazel ones and she had time to think that they were beautiful before he said, "Okay, yeah. You know what? She'll do. I don't mind 'em a little skinny now and then."

This seemed to please the tall one, "That's what I thought. I like what I see but something about her just feels...right, you know?"

The other men were both nodding and then he was dragging her toward the front door. Maddie waited to hear sirens, the operator had said help was on the way, but she didn't hear anything at all. No sirens, nothing. As they got closer to the door it opened and a man in a raincoat stepped in, looking down at his phone in one hand and not seeing the danger in front of him.

Maddie gasped and the man looked up, his face blanching at the sight of three armed men facing him. He dropped his phone and it fell to the floor before he turned to run. Then three gunshots rang out and the back of his yellow raincoat now had three holes in it that hadn't been there a split second before. His forward momentum kept him going even as he died and Maddie screamed again, a piercing, unbelievable cry of horror, and he hit the door face first before sliding down; leaving a huge smear of blood on the frosted glass.

"Shut that bitch up!" cried the man with the smoking gun, the one who had said he didn't mind 'em a little skinny. "Now!"

Maddie tried to pull her hand out of the tall one's grip, still screaming as blood began pooling underneath the dead man in the raincoat, and then something hit the back of her head - hard - and she was aware of no more.


	2. Chapter 2

Maddie came awake some hours later in a dark room with no idea of where she was or how she'd gotten there. She lay on a lumpy mattress with a thin sheet covering her and when she tried to sit up she felt a monstrous bolt of pain in the back of her head that made her cry out and squeeze her eyes tightly shut again.

She cradled her head in her hands, rocking back and forth and moaning; waiting forever until it finally began to fade a little. Her head still pounding, her eyeballs damn near throbbing, she cautiously released herself and looked around. She was in a seriously shitty, dilapidated room with boards nailed up over the window closest to her and piles of boxes all over the place. Her eyes watering and her nose stuffed up, she squinted to see that most of the boxes were unopened appliances and electronics; stereo systems, speakers, soundboards, coffee makers, mixers, and toaster ovens. A hoarder's bedroom, then? What the _fuck_? Where was she?

Maddie lifted the sheet from her legs and swung them over the side, waiting as another wave of pain washed through her. Lifting her head to look around again, she couldn't see much past the bed, a little nightstand that had a million beer bottles lined up on it, and the boxes closest to her. Everything else was pitch black, revealing nothing.

She tried to stand and fell back, clutching at her tortured head again; feeling as if someone were actually trying to beat her brains out with a hammer. The thickest part of her skull was where it seemed the worst and, as she worked her fingers through the damp locks of her mousey brown hair, she felt a knot the size of a doorknob back there. Her finger jabbed it lightly and she drew her hand away with a hiss of pain. Then, moving much more gently now, she felt the bulge back there a little more thoroughly and found a split in the very center; the blood that had seeped out now mostly dry and tacky. So she must've either fallen or something had hit her - something _hard_. That explained the headache, at least.

Maddie's stomach became queasy at the thought. There was something there, some memory that explained everything, but pain made her lose the thread she could've pulled to unravel the rest. She looked up again, her belly now full of anxious tension, and called out softly, "Hello?"

She heard a creak then and drew back as a shadow detached itself from the others and came forward.

"Well, hello to you, too," said a man's voice; deep and a little raspy. She thought it sounded familiar and that queasy feeling in her gut amplified by tenfold, leaving her shaking as the shadow came closer. "Did you have a nice nap?"

"Wh-who the fuck're you?" Maddie asked, clutching at the collar of her uniform with one hand and pushing herself back until she was against the lumpy, paneled wall. "Where am I?"

The shadow came closer and now she could see a man there, six feet two inches tall and maybe weighing one hundred and eighty pounds. He looked to be around her age, maybe a little older, and he had shaggy, dishwater blonde hair and pretty hazel eyes. At the sight of those eyes the disquiet in her gut grew to an unbearable level and she thought she might actually puke. Blood. Why was she thinking of blood? The smell, the taste, the look of it. Why would his eyes remind her of blood?

"Name's Leon," he said, scratching at the stubble on his cheek. As he shifted she saw that one side of his head was shaved and some on the other side had fallen over to cover it; giving the appearance of a full head of hair. He had on a filthy wife-beater, a pair of ragged chinos, and his brown work boots were scuffed and stained black in some places. On every inch of exposed skin she could see tattoos, sleeving both arms and creeping up his chest. She couldn't make out what they were but she could tell that most of them weren't the kind you got at a tattoo shop. They lacked color or consistency; seeming random and crudely drawn.

"Where am I?" she repeated, pushing against the bed until her back was pressed hard against the wall; her dark blue eyes so wide that white could be seen all around the irises. "What am I doing here?"

Leon chuckled and came closer, his mouth held in a crooked smile she might've thought charming under other circumstances. His hazel eyes flashed in the dim light as he said, "Now that's the real sixty-four thousand dollar question, ain't it? What _are_ you doing here?"

Maddie huddled in on herself as he sat on the farthest end of the bed. She watched him scratch at the broad shoulder closest to her where there was a weird tattoo of a smiling woman with her eyes X-ed out and blood trailing from her severed neck. Her mouth dry and her heart pounding almost as hard as her head had been, she suddenly remembered where she'd seen those hazel eyes before.

"Y-you killed that man," she said, her voice weak and terrified; barely above a mutter. "The man in the raincoat. You shot him in the back."

Leon grunted and quit scratching his shoulder, turning his head to look at her again. "Yep," he said, smiling and disclosing a set of slightly yellowed and somewhat crooked teeth. "Sure did."

"Why?"

Leon's smile twitched a little at that as if he might laugh and he shrugged, "Why not?"

Maddie only looked at him for several moments, leaking silent tears. Then she asked, "What about Veronica?"

"Who?" he frowned, cocking one thick eyebrow at her.

"Veronica," she repeated, wiping at her face and trying to keep herself from screaming. "The girl who was working with me? What'd you do to her?"

"Oh," Leon said with a nod, his smile reappearing. "The redhead. She's fine as far as I know. She'll probably wake up with a headache like you did, no worse for the wear."

"You didn't shoot her?"

He shook his head in false solemnity, his hazel eyes still smiling. "Nope," he replied. "After she went down we didn't touch a hair on her little head."

Maddie let out a deep breath she hadn't been aware she was holding, crossing her arms over her bosom as if to calm the heart beating madly beneath it. "Okay," she said, more to herself than him. "Okay, then. That's... that's good."

Leon shifted a little on the bed, drawing her attention again, and he asked, "What's your name?" 

She told him, not seeing the point of withholding it. 

"Alright, Maddie," he said, clapping his hands and then briskly rubbing them together. "Maddie Conner." He paused to make a face, "What kind of fucking name is that? Irish?"

She nodded.

"Ah," he said, smiling again. "So you and the redhead were both micks. Good to know. I'm of Scottish and Scandinavian ancestry, if you care. Me and my brothers like to think of ourselves as being of Viking descent. Makes us feel a little better about the tats we had to get in the pen. Like it's a little more personal, you know?"

Maddie nodded even though she had no idea what the fuck he was talking about. Then, replaying what he'd said in her mind, she asked, " _Brothers_?"

Leon's smile widened, "Yeah. There's me, Travis, and Eddie. Travis is the big one. I'm sure you remember him?"

Maddie nodded again. Yeah, she remembered him all right. He was the one who'd shoved a shotgun in her face and told her he was going to blow her fucking head off.

"You didn't answer my question before," she said, looking away from those hazel eyes before finding her gaze drawn back to them again. "Why am I here?"

Leon sighed and rubbed one long-fingered hand through his terrible haircut. "Well, that depends," he said, his expression serious now.

"On what?"

"How badly do you want to live?" he asked almost casually.

Maddie's heart was speeding up again, beating a mad tattoo in her throat, "Wh-what do you mean? I don't understand."

"Look," he said, holding out his hands to her, the rough surface of his palms exposed. "Here's the deal. On one hand you can decide to be a fucking cunt and die. We'll have our fun with you, kill you, cut off your fucking head and bury you in the backyard with the rest of them." His right hand closed into a fist and he let it drop as he pooched out his lower lip at her. "So sad. Somebody play 'Taps' for poor, dearly departed Maddie."

He held up his left hand and seemed to offer it to her. " _Or_ , on the other hand, you can be a good little guest and do whatever we tell you to do whenever we tell you to do it - with no backtalk - and you can stay alive," he said, giving her a wink and a nod. "How's that sound?"

Maddie could hardly find enough breath to speak now, "Wha...what?"

Leon groaned in frustration and his brow creased, his eyes seeming to darken as they stared into hers even more intensely than before. "It's not that complicated," he said, sounding as if he were speaking to someone who should know better already. "Do you want to live or do you want to die? Which one is it, Maddie?"

"I don't want to die," she told him, letting out a sob just before covering her face with her hands. Her voice was now muffled a little as she continued, "Please, _please_ , don't fucking kill me."

He reached over to pat her shaking knee with one hand and she nearly screamed in fear. "There," he said, showing that easy smile again. "That wasn't so hard, was it? I thought you'd see things our way. You didn't strike me as a stupid girl."


End file.
